A recent discovery by the Scottish Hockey Heritage Group (SHHG) led to one of our volunteers, Mark Evans, attending the British Society of Sports History Conference in Chichester in August 2024 and presenting a paper on a series of hockey matches that took place between 1933 and 1939.

In England in 1932 a new women’s hockey association, the English Ladies’ Hockey Leagues Association (ELHLA), was set up to look after the leagues that had begun to be formed around the country, but particularly in the industrial north. By their very nature, these leagues encouraged competition in the era of ‘amateur’ sporting principles championed by the national governing body for women’s hockey, the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA). Even though many northern leagues affiliated to the AEWHA, they had become frustrated by attempts to control and restrict their influence, so they took matters into their own hands.

One of their aims was to provide high-level competition for their players and between 1933 and 1938 a series of ‘international’ matches were played between England and Scotland. In 1939 the two were joined by Northern Ireland and a triangular tournament was held for a trophy donated by Mrs. Moores, the President of the ELHLA.

A press cutting showing the Scottish leagues team being led onto the field by pipers prior to their 1934 match against the English leagues team.
Images all taken from M Gourlay’s notebook and reproduced courtesy of the Scottish Hockey Heritage Group.

Initially, there was very little known about these matches. However, using The British Newspaper Archive and a donation to The Hockey Museum (THM) from the family of one of the England players, E Knight, Mark began to uncover some of the history behind these games. Then the SHHG contacted Mark with the news that they had discovered a notebook from one of the Scottish players, M Gourlay, which led to several new discoveries and to Mark’s presentation at the summer conference.

Picture (press cutting) of the England team who played in the England Leagues vs Scotland Leagues match held at Cheadle Heath Sports Ground in 1938.

Picture (press cutting) of the Scotland team who played in the England Leagues vs Scotland Leagues match held at Cheadle Heath Sports Ground in 1938.

Match programme from the 1938 England Leagues vs Scotland Leagues match held at Cheadle Heath Sports Ground with the signatures of the England team.

As a result of the information obtained from the notebook, the Museum now knows a great deal more about these matches and Mark has produced an article about the games which is held at THM. However, there are a couple of pertinent issues around how the matches should be regarded. In relation to the England and Scotland games, it appeared that the Scottish team had been picked from just one league, the Glasgow and District Ladies’ Hockey League. This has been confirmed thanks to M Gourlay’s notebook. THM understands that there were more leagues in Scotland in the 1930s, for example in Dundee; however, how many more leagues and why their players were not considered for the ‘international’ team remains a mystery. The England team consisted of Lancashire and Cheshire players (if Stockport is counted as being in Cheshire) as it was only leagues from these two counties that joined the embryonic ELHLA. Therefore, the match could be described as Glasgow (Scotland) versus Lancashire and Cheshire (England). Indeed, the first England versus Scotland match was described by one hockey correspondent, “Penalty Bully” from the Sheffield based sports newspaper The Green ‘Un, as a ‘mock international’. Research into the make up of the Irish team is still in its early stages and it is too early to say how the Irish team was selected. Taking all this into account, it should not distract from appreciating that the players who played in these matches may well have been good enough to play for the AEWHA’s England team or the Scottish Association Scotland team. It is time that the players in these ‘internationals’ had their stories told and finds like the M Gourlay notebook continue to help to uncover a story that has been hidden for too long.

Conference reception

Mark’s presentation seems to have been well received at the conference and the overall the feeling of the audience was that the players should be classed as internationals. The British Society of Sports History is a fantastic organisation for all interested in sports history. It has journals, podcasts and lots of other information available to its members. The conference is held once a year and covers all sports and is a great way to highlight research to a wider audience. Anyone wishing to attend or to speak at next year’s conference in Belfast can contact Mark via THM who is happy to provide more information. It would certainly be an excellent way to promote some of the great work volunteers at The Hockey Museum are doing and help to raise the profile of hockey history in the sports history world.

A press cutting showing the Scottish team who played the Northern Irish Leagues team at Weir’s Ground, Cathcart, Scotland as part of the triangular tournament in the 1938-39 season.